She made him weak. He couldn’t afford to be weak or vulnerable and she made him both. It didn’t matter. She was also his greatest strength. He bent his head and took her mouth gently. Sometimes the fire raged between them. Sometimes it was a slow burn of a promise, like now. He promised her everything he had to give. His heart. His soul. His complete loyalty.
“Angelo has several places he hides the children, according to Marge. We have to check them out without them knowing. Stefano offered to do that.”
“He didn’t contact me.”
“I asked him not to. I wanted you with me,” Valentino admitted. “I needed you with me,” he added before she could voice a protest. He glanced at his watch. “Let’s go, baby.” He buttoned her suit jacket, enclosing her breasts. The bruises were still there, standing out starkly against her otherwise flawless skin. “Ride with me. You’re a Saldi. My wife. Stefano and his crew can use their own cars, but I want you with me.”
She framed his face with both hands, her expression one of regret. “We’ll use the shadows. You told Stefano where the places to look for the children are. He will have sent my brothers and cousins hunting. Once they’re found, he’ll report back to you and then call for us to set things up and be ready for you. I have to be part of that. I’m a shadow rider, Valentino. I work best in the shadows. That’s where I’m an asset to you. It was okay to ask Stefano to have me spend the night with you, but I need to be with them when we take down your cousin and uncle. It’s the best way I can help you.”
Valentino knew he couldn’t protect her as he wanted to. Maybe staying in the shadows was more of a protection for her. He didn’t even care if Elie Archambault worked as her partner, as long as he protected her.
“You have your wire?”
She nodded. “I’ll put it in when we have to give up our cell phones. Stefano will contact my bodyguards and let them know where I need to meet him. Until then, I have to stay with Drago and Demetrio.”
“And my men, Emmanuelle. You have to get used to Levi and Axel. They’re going to be assigned to you at all times. When they aren’t with you, Pace and Lando will be.”
“Honey, I have to disappear into the shadows. What then?”
He hated the gentleness in her voice. The way she spoke to him as if he wasn’t quite thinking things through. Dario knew about the fucking shadows. Maybe he’d take her four bodyguards into his confidence as well. If they said one word of it to anyone, he’d slit their throats. They knew what he was. They knew he’d do it.
“We have to go.” He’d discuss it with her later. There were going to be quite a few discussions later, apparently. “When did you get so stubborn?”
She burst out laughing, slung her arm around his waist and looked up at him with soft, glowing eyes. That look always melted him. He shook his head and looked away, putting his stone face on. Letting the cold settle into him. Giving the outside world nothing of what he felt. As far as anyone was concerned, he was Valentino Saldi and he would end a life on the slightest hint that someone had betrayed him or the famiglia. He was ruthless and merciless. His reputation was already rising fast, and it had only been a couple of days.
They entered the elevator and rode it down together with the bodyguards. Dario was waiting, leaning against the wall, looking bored, just inside the lower parking garage. His gaze slid over Valentino and then Emmanuelle. There was no expression on his face whatsoever, but Valentino felt the little shiver that went through Emme. She knew Dario almost as well as he did, and she knew something was up. He was going to have to tell Dario that his bored indifference tipped Emme off to the fact that something was wrong.
His phone vibrated. Emme’s must have as well. She pulled it from inside her jacket as she stepped close to Valentino, under his shoulder, but not so close he couldn’t get to his weapons. He liked that about her. She had always been aware of the space between them in public. He had put it down to taking care not to let others know they were a couple. Now he realized it was more than that. Emmanuelle was just as careful as he was about being in a position to utilize all weapons.
One last piece of information before Marge died. She witnessed Miceli meeting with Marco Messina on two occasions.
That was bad. Really bad, if Marge confirmed Marco met with Miceli on two occasions. Valentino couldn’t imagine Marco, the youngest son of crime boss Tibberiu Messina, setting up and carrying out a large human trafficking ring that had to encompass more than just the Saldi territory. The rot had to have spread to other families. Marco would need his father’s backing. Going to war with Tibberiu was next to impossible. Valentino didn’t have the manpower. Not yet. Maybe never. Even with the Ferraro family as allies, he couldn’t touch the Messina family. He stopped the flow of traffic in his own territory, but he wouldn’t be able to cut off the head.
He swore softly, his eyes meeting Dario’s. He and Dario had sworn a blood oath. Even Giuseppi didn’t understand their full commitment to stopping Miceli. For Giuseppi it was a matter of a traitor going against the famiglia. Worse, Miceli was his brother. Giuseppi was now convinced, as Val had been all along, that Miceli was behind the car bombing that killed their youngest brother and his wife. It was important to stop him, but for Val, the most important thing was to crush the human trafficking ring at the very heart, to cut off the head. If that head was the very powerful Messina family, they would not do so easily or soon.
He felt Emmanuelle’s eyes on him and steeled himself to meet her gaze. Dario had sent her the message as well. Her family would have to check out the information and could do so much faster than Valentino could. That meant he would have to allow her to go without his protection. He knew that would become the scenario over their years together. His woman was so unafraid of risk, while he would always be terrified when she was out of his sight. He knew she felt the same for him.
“We have to go, Val. We can’t take a chance that Angelo and Miceli will move those kids. It’s rare for both the female and male children to be held together,” Dario said.
“Take all the men with you, Valentino,” Emme said softly. “Demetrio and Drago are here, and I’ll be leaving to meet my brothers and cousins shortly.”
Val knew she was right. As much as he wanted to leave his men to protect her even for those few minutes before Stefano sent word where she was to meet him, they couldn’t watch her disappear into the shadows without some kind of explanation. He cupped the side of her face, ran his thumb over her cheek and nodded.
Abruptly, he dropped his hand. “Let’s go, Dario.” He indicated the cars. They would tell the drivers the location once they were close to it. They weren’t going to take chances that Miceli or Angelo would move the children before they could get to them. Valentino had an army moving on the location, but he was sending his men there from various sites.
All drivers were sent to the highway in the general direction that could take them anywhere. If they had a traitor among them, he had no chance of tipping Miceli off that Val’s men were coming for him. In the meantime, Stefano and his crew could get there first and hopefully stop them from leaving should they be forewarned.
The neighborhood was old and run-down. Emmanuelle could see why Angelo had chosen to hide the children here. No one would care in this desolate place if they heard the sound of children crying. It was a common sound, along with adults fighting and women screaming from the beatings they took. The smell of alcohol was prevalent, along with urine and rotting garbage.